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The objectives of specifications published by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives are examined, and an explanation is given of the justification for a recent revision of the specification for gum arabic (Acacia senegal). Differences from the earlier version are summarised. The Revised Specification is a considerable improvement in chemical terms and offers increased protection for importers, deemed to be the manufacturers of consignments from the producing countries, and for food processors responsible for making labelling declarations. Unfortunately the maximum degree of safety assurance for consumers, which they are entitled to expect, is still not guaranteed. The revised specification remains inadequate to ensure that gum arabic in foodstuffs originates from the specified source, or complies in terms of identity, composition and quality with that of the test article selected for the toxicological evaluations that led to its classification as “ADI not specified” in 1983. The loopholes available to companies which may not be prepared voluntarily to accept the principles of good manufacturing practice are indicated.

Outlines recent developments in the international regulatory specification for gum arabic and warns prospective buyers of the loopholes involved.

Information now available indicates that the intensive diplomatic lobbying in Europe in 1991 by Philippine interests failed to convince the European regulatory authorities to approve, for food use, a seaweed‐derived product that had not been evaluated toxicologically.

In the recent 1993 round of regulatory meetings, the joint FAO/WHO JECFA awarded a temporary restricted ADI to Processed Eucheuma Seaweed (PES); the Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants ruled that PES is different from carrageenan; and the UK Food Advisory Committee has now confirmed that studies on carrageenan requested in 1992 are still required; that carrageenan should not be used in food for infants and young children, and that the specification for carrageenan should be tightened. Indicates the changes resulting from these separate regulatory considerations.

The recently developed Reduced Oxide Soldering Activation (ROSA™) method is shown to be compatible with long‐term use with mass soldering processes. Prototype regeneration cells operated for as long as six months with minimal maintenance retained their effectiveness for providing short wetting times under a variety of perturbations. The operating window for the process is wide and component degradation caused by exposure to the fully charged solution is minimal. The ROSA treatment provides soldering performance comparable to that attainable with a fully activated rosin flux and offers the promise of providing low soldering defect rates without the use of CFC solvents.

The study addresses the effect of product usage, satisfaction derived out of the same and the brand switching behaviour in several product categories while looking at the product involvement level in the Indian marketplace. A fair amount of work has been done in the area of customer satisfaction and loyalty and many customer satisfaction indexes are available in the market using different variables and characteristics. The study attempts to understand the brand switching behaviour of the customers and its relation not with just satisfaction derived out of the product but also connects to the usage pattern of the customers and product involvement. Five categories (vehicles, television, soap, hair oil, and ice cream), involving varying levels of involvement were chosen. Cluster analysis was used to understand the grouping of the characteristics across the categories and their effect on brand switching behaviour in correlation with satisfaction and involvement level. It was observed that product usage and related level of satisfaction fail to explain the brand switching behaviour. Product involvement was found to have moderate impact on readiness to switch. The study emphasises that marketers will have to keep a constant eye to understand the usage pattern associated with their products and the satisfaction derived out of it and also at how customers involve themselves with the product to lessen the brand switching behaviour among their customers.

A recent Codex Alimentarius decision to refer the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) 1990 Revised Specification for gum arabic (Acacia senegal) for reconsideration has been made in response to trade interests despite concerned comments by consumer associations. Although the 1990 JECFA Specification remains in force the Codex recognises only the 1978 JECFA Specification, which pre‐dates the introduction of any microbiological requirement to ensure the absence of Salmonellae and Escherichia coli.

The controls and queues of the past eleven years have confirmed and consolidated, I think, the conservatism of the British housewife in the matter of buying food. Butter is just national butter. Margarine is what the Minister of Food dictates. Cooking fat is—well, just cooking fat. Those who succumbed to the official boosting of whalemeat, snoek and brisling mostly wish that they had not. Those who were adventurous enough to spend 5s. or 6s. on cans of imported food labelled —apparently with the Minister's approval—with the words “ Sausages in brine ”, discovered that they had about 11 ounces of sausages in a pint or more of salt water. Could anything be more destructive of willingness to try something new? I am led to make these banal observations by what is happening in this country in the matter of quick‐frosted foods. There is now a National Association of wholesale distributors of these products, which is resolved to try to overcome, by suitable propaganda, the sales‐resistance of the British housewife; and, as a mere looker‐on, I wish them well. Close to my house, in a London suburb, I notice that quick‐frosted fruits and vegetables are on sale at the shops of a dairy firm, a grocer, a provision dealer and a fruiterer (all these are multiple shops), and also at a health food store. Some of the largest firms, including the Unilever mammoth, are now in this business, which is operated on a colossal scale in the United States. It would be boring to give many figures, but I learn that on January 1st, 1949, the stocks of these frozen foods in American warehouses, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, were as under: —

In the interests of consumers, recent intense diplomatic lobbying in Europe must not be allowed to result in automatic approval for food use, without formal testing, of a seaweed product that was approved, surprisingly, in the USA last year.

Purpose – This study draws on conflict management literature to examine service recovery by service organizations and its effect on the important marketing outcomes of customer perceptions of service quality (satisfaction, trust, attribution/praise, and value) which influences customer retention rate (loyalty) and thus firm profitability.Design/methodology – Data from 412 banking customers are first employed to test the study’s model, and the results are subsequently cross-validated using a sample of 421 health-care customers.Findings – In services marked by moderate to low customer contact (i.e., task oriented) such as banking, effective conflict management tends to increase customer satisfaction, trust, and perceived customer value. It also has a positive effect on customer loyalty, albeit mediated by the above three variables. However, in high contact service contexts (i.e., personal oriented) like health care, conflict management seems to have relatively weak direct and indirect effects on customer loyalty.Research limitations/implications – The single country (Malaysian) origin of the present study’s data suggests the need for corresponding research in a Western context, where customers likely have different service expectations. Additionally, the research scope could be extended to focus on the relational nature of conflict management (the way in which a conflict is framed and resolved) in service recovery and how this moderates the relationship between perceived service quality and customer loyalty. The bi-industry approach taken in this research could also be extended to other low- and high-contact service sectors.Practical implications – Service organizations may benefit from training their employees on conflict management, honing skills in sensing and halting potential customer conflicts, and instituting a rapid and procedurally robust conflict resolution mechanism.Value/originality – This research is the first to examine firm’s conflict management across two service sectors. It contributes to theory by situating conflict management at the crux of the service failure/recovery relationship quality debate and underlining its relevance for a range of desired outcomes namely, customer satisfaction, customer trust, customer value attribution or customer praise, and customer loyalty.